Burn After Reading

05.15.10
Burn After Reading
(2008)
Starring: John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Brad Pitt

"Oh, yes. You see, you're one of the morons I've been fighting my whole life. My whole fucking life. But guess what... Today, I win."
-John Malkovich as Osbourne Cox

This concludes the third time I've watched this film and my sentiments have changed dramatically since my first encounter with the chaos of Burn After Reading.The first time i walked out of the theatre I felt like i wanted to stand in the middle of a large crowd of people, throw my hands in the air, and scream profanities at the top of my lungs. Second viewing left me feeling more annoyed then anxious. The Third time just so happens to be the charm, i was quite amused this run around. The Cohen brothers are fascinated with the concept of "the man": the common man who thinks that no one could possibly know anymore than him. Burn After Reading is no different from the rest of their films, the idiot wins. The Cohen brothers are the masters of the cynical cinema, mocking the very people that frequent their films. Perhaps i had such a difficult time watching this movie the first two times, because I'm not very good at getting past the individual characters, but once you can throw individuality into the background, the humor of the story takes foreground and it becomes the tragically humorous comedy it was always intended to be.